With oil comes chaos

Ndokwa East is a local government area in Delta State, with its headquarters in Aboh, a sleepy town on the bank of River Niger. It has an area of 1,617 km² and a population of 103,171 at the 2006 census.

The recent crisis in Obalutchi land, comprising some close-knit communities in the area, goes against the culture of the people, who are agrarian, peace-loving and welcoming. The people had lived in peace and harmony for centuries. The crisis has at its core the discovery of oil in a piece of land, reportedly belonging to Obeche Utchi, one of the villages in the community.

The discovery of oil should ordinarily bring prosperity and wellbeing to the community, but in this case, the reverse is the case. With the discovery came chaos and mayhem. Since the discovery, lives have been lost, properties worth millions of Naira destroyed, and people displaced from their ancestral homes.

According to investigations, the problem started long before the discovery of oil. There was a dispute over the ownership of a farmland between Obeche and Oboma. In order to make the case for their ownership, Obeche enlisted the help of a man from Oboma, whose testimony proved to be crucial in winning the dispute. As compensation, Obeche carved out a portion of the previously disputed land and gifted it to the Oboma man. When oil was eventually discovered on the land, the man was approached by Obeche to renegotiate the gifted land in view of the new value of the land on account of the discovery of oil. The man went to his kinsmen, Oboma and asked them to help fight off Obeche who are bent on taking his land. Things quickly escalated from here. It became a dispute between Obeche and Oboma, instead of a dispute between Obeche and a man from Oboma. Skirmishes between the two villages began in 2015.

On Sunday, November 12, 2017, Oboma launched an attack on Obeche. A young Obeche man, was killed. Many people sustained gunshot wounds, women and children were injured, property destroyed. Another young man was captured and taken to Oboma, and was subsequently beheaded. This was followed by a spate of daily attacks on Obeche.

On November 21, 2017, Oboma launched another attack on Obeche. This time, however, they were repelled and chased out of Obeche, and pursued to Oboma, where the head of Dakota was recovered from a shrine in Oboma. His body remains unaccounted for. As result of the continued raids on Obeche, most of the villagers have had to flee to neighbouring towns and villages, where they fear they might still be attacked by gangs from Oboma. For now, the village remains virtually a ghost town.

Chukwuji, a novelist and advertising practitioner, sent this piece from Lagos.